You’ve heard it a million times – that we need to eat five portions of fruit and veg daily to stay healthy.
But ask most people, exactly which fruits and veg count and how big a portion is and they’ll probably fail. So here’s the low-down…
Fruit
Berries and cherries
- 7 strawberries
- handful of grapes or raspberries
- 14 cherries
Small fruit
- 3 apricots
- 5-6 litchis, damsons, kumquats or passion fruit .
- 2 plums, figs, kiwi fruit or naartjies
Medium fruit
- 1 apple, banana, orange, nectarine, peach or pear
Large fruit
- Half a grapefruit or avocado
- 2 slices mango
- 1 large slice, papaya, melon or pineapple
Dried fruit
- 1 heaped tbsp raisins, pineapple, cranberries, apricots or currants
- 4 dried apple rings
- 2 figs
- A handful of banana chips
- 3 dried or ready-to-eat prunes
Canned fruit
Always choose fruits in juice rather than syrup. Have roughly the same quantity of fruit that you would eat as a fresh portion
- 2 pear or peach halves or 7 slices
- 6 apricot halves
- 8 segments of tinned grapefruit
- 2 pineapple rings or 12 chunks
Fruit Juice & Smoothies
- 150 ml glass
Fruit Salad
- 3 heaped tablespoons, fresh or canned
Veg
Salad vegetables
- 7 cherry tomatoes
- 5cm piece of cucumber
- 3 sticks celery
- 1 cereal bowl mixed leaves or lettuce
- 10 radishes
- 3 baby pickled beetroots
- 1 medium tomato
Greens
- 2 broccoli spears
- 4 heaped tbsp green beans (runner, French), cabbage and kale
- 8 Brussels sprouts
- 5 asparagus spears
Other veg
- 3 heaped tbsp sliced carrots, mushrooms and diced swede
- 1 parsnip, 1 mielie, 1 medium onion
- 6 baby corn
- 4 pieces sundried tomato
- 2 handfuls beansprouts
- 1/2 pepper
- 1 handful mangetout
Canned and frozen vegetables
Choose canned vegetables in water rather than brine. Have roughly the same quantity that you would eat as a fresh portion.
- 3tbsp peas, carrots, sweetcorn kernels or mixed vegetables
Beens and pulses
- 3 heaped tbsp baked beans, haricot beans, cannellini beans, butter beans, chickpeas, lentils or kidney beans
What counts?
Fresh, canned (in juice or water, without sugar or salt), frozen, dried or juiced fruit and vegetables can all count.
What is a portion?
There are a couple of ways of measuring what a portion should be: it’s about 80g in weight, but you can’t always put everything on the scales, so we found a handful is a good benchmark for most fruits and vegetables. You should be able to hold a ‘portion’ in your cupped hand, although exceptions to this would be Items such as dried fruit and sundried tomatoes.
What’s not included
-
More than one glass of fruit juice
Why? Juices are low in fibre because most of the pulp is removed, so a large beneficial part is missing. The natural sugars in juice are also more harmful to teeth than if they’re locked up in the fruit, so drink juice as part of a meal.
-
Potatoes and sweet potatoes
Why? Vegetables such as potatoes are a good source of energy and an important part of a healthy diet, but nutritionally they’re more akin to bread, rice and pasta and don’t count towards fruit and vegetable intake.
-
More than one portion of beans/pulses
Why? These are very nutritious, but don’t contain as many vitamins and minerals as other vegetables, so should only be counted once.
-
Five portions of the same fruit or veg
Why? Different fruit and veg contain different types and amounts of all the vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants your body needs, so you should eat as many different ones as you can.
Text by Nigel Denby. This shortened feature was taken from the September 2009 edition of Essentials.
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